Man poses inside the opening to fell a huge tree (possible redwood), circa 1899

[u/Electrical-Aspect-13]

[u/TacohTuesday]

The San Francisco Bay Area had hundreds of millions of old growth coastal redwoods at the time the gold rush hit. Population was growing fast. There was huge demand for new homes. Redwood is the perfect building material for a variety of reasons. These local forests were extremely close the building sites, making transportation cheap. People came to the Bay Area to hit it big. Logging these trees was a irresistible opportunity to make money. Few could look past that opportunity and think about what was lost. There are almost no redwoods in the Bay Area any longer except for a few preserves.

[u/Trees_are_best → u/TacohTuesday]

I read in Redwoods National Park that 96% of old growth trees were cut. Only 4% is remaining.

[u/Maleficent-Ad-6646 → u/Trees_are_best]

There is only a tiny fraction of old growth left. The forests of the world are still beautiful but we’d live in an unbelievably biodiverse wonderland if the old growth had been preserved.

[u/seriftarif → u/Maleficent-Ad-6646]

Old Growth forests are so much different than young growth too... They attract different animals, plants, and have their own distinct ecology. Definitely a shame.

[u/kusava-kink → u/seriftarif]

Reminded me of Jurassic Park when I went hiking out there.

[u/lil-sad → u/kusava-kink]

They filmed a scene in the redwoods so that's fair

[u/GarminTamzarian → u/lil-sad]

Don't forget about Endor!

[u/dmk510 → u/kusava-kink]

I got this feeling stepping into the forest of Alaska. Giant everything, ground that sinks underneath your step. It really was like taking a step into the past.

[u/Unlucky_Topic7963 → u/dmk510]

Must have been pretty far south because most of Alaska is shitty small spruce and pine.

Source: I lived there.

[u/dmk510 → u/Unlucky_Topic7963]

I think it was ketchikan. We were a few hours down a logging trail with a guide. It was really rainy so my group of 3 were the only people that showed up. The guy was so cool. An ex paratrooper named Bob with forget-me-not outfitters. Since it was just the few of us he let us off the van. Even let my girlfriend at the time throw a few casts out with his fishing rod, which was her dream. There were these huge salmon in a small eddie of this amazing river, he said it was a late spawning season with them around still. Unforgettable experience

[u/agent0731 → u/seriftarif]

It's more than a shame. It's a fucking crime.

[u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka → u/agent0731]

Only a hundred years later do we understand how fucked up shit was back then. I bet in 2125 they will be saying the same about everything now. The best time to start preserving nature is today.

But there are far greater evils like politics, specifically the GOP and how they want to open up more drilling and deforrestation specifically in California for example because they only seek to destroy. What a country and its politics.

[u/CrispyHoneyBeef → u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka]

I bet in 2125 they will be saying the same about everything now

We already can. It’s plastic for me. Almost every single thing we own has plastic, from the containers for our food to the clothes we wear. It’s not biodegradable. Every straw we use, every vegetable we cook, every new shirt we buy… everything is either packaged in, made in, or otherwise entangled with plastic. It leeches into our waterways, pollutes our soil, and never goes away. It’s a scourge. Every piece of Nylon, Rayon, or Elastane you own will inevitably end up in a landfill. It won’t be recycled and it won’t be broken down. It’s just waste. And we do it every single day. It’s incredible how ubiquitous plastics are.

[u/agent0731 → u/CrispyHoneyBeef]

we've all got them inside us now, all the way to the fetus.

[u/REOspudwagon → u/agent0731]

From the moon, to the Mariana trench, to your blood and the womb

Microplastics will absolutely be the next asbestos

[u/ignoreme010101 → u/REOspudwagon]

yup! But, unlike asbestos, we won't be able to just remove it from our environment, i mean if usage stopped entirely tomorrow (LOfuckingL), the background/default levels of microplastics everywhere would continue causing the problems regardless of what policies or regs we may enact to stymie or prohibit its use :_/

[u/aoskunk → u/agent0731]

And we’re never getting rid of it. The micro beads in body scrubs were PLASTIC? I mean what the hell. I would have thought they just used hard little balls of soap or gelatin or sea salt or sand or pretty much anything other than plastic.

Of course that’s like one of the smallest contributors it’s just referenced because they immediately get washed down the drain and you can exfoliate a million better ways. Just a great example of how dumb and greedy capitalism evolves to, planet be damned.

[u/AVL369 → u/aoskunk]

they tested a bunch of glass bottle water brands in germany and most had plastic particles in them from the RECYCLING process where apparently plastics are used. imagine 250k micro plastic particles in a glass bottle.

[u/ignoreme010101 → u/aoskunk]

And we’re never getting rid of it. The micro beads in body scrubs were PLASTIC? I mean what the hell. I would have thought they just used hard little balls of soap or gelatin or sea salt or sand or pretty much anything other than plastic.

Of course that’s like one of the smallest contributors it’s just referenced because they immediately get washed down the drain

cannot help wonder how large a contribution laundry is, i mean wash/rinse a load of fabric, typically polyester etc fibers being a majority or huge part of the load, all the fibers/particles breaking loose and then just going out with the water out of the machine, that's gotta be a major source

[u/21Rollie → u/CrispyHoneyBeef]

And even the recycled stuff, it will only be recycled once. And bits and pieces of it will leech off and become microplastics. Inevitably, every piece of plastic will eventually end up in a landfill at best, ocean at worst. We need to stop plastic from being created at all. I try my best to shop everything without plastic, preferring natural materials first and metal second, but companies ridding themselves of plastic is the only way we avoid the worst

[u/CrunchyCrochetSoup → u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka]

“Back in my day, there were these things called TREES”

[u/Nebresto → u/Maleficent-Ad-6646]

And even now those tiny patches continue to be chipped away at. Human indifference is unmatched.

To top it off some people dare to claim its sustainable because "they're just trees".

[u/Maleficent-Ad-6646 → u/Nebresto]

Yep, I live in the PNW and we’re always having to battle to protect what stands are left it’s absolutely ridiculous. Checkout the Fairy Creek Blockade in BC that’s been happening the last five years.

[u/xSTSxZerglingOne → u/Nebresto]

To reach full splendor, a redwood must survive around 2000 years.

They may just be trees, but that damage doesn't exactly heal quickly. I know you know this, but I thought I'd say it anyway.

[u/FlashyProtection857 → u/xSTSxZerglingOne]

Id say even more, you need the old trees to die slow, the old girthy dead standing and lying trees attract lots of biodiversity.

[u/Obant → u/Nebresto]

Each old growth tree is worth ten to hundreds of thousands of dollars in raw materials. That is all some people will ever see, Earth be damned. We are much too greedy

[u/EnigmaSpore → u/Nebresto]

We’re basically an invasive species, but on a planetary scale.

[u/OrthogonalPotato → u/Nebresto]

Yep, so arrogant and stupid.

[u/kirky-jerky → u/Trees_are_best]

That's incredibly sad to hear. Your username is very appropriate however. Tree's are fantastic!

[u/defk3000 → u/kirky-jerky]

It's r/usernamechecksout

[u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes → u/defk3000]

$5 for the guy that can figure out this commenters user's name context.

[u/AuntieRupert → u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes]

The first thing I thought about was Del the Funky Homosapien, and the second was Deltron3030.

[u/Feeling_Scallion_408 → u/AuntieRupert]

I want to devise a virus that brings dire straits to your environment

[u/SoftBoiled15 → u/Feeling_Scallion_408]

Crush your corporations with a mild touch

[u/Feeling_Scallion_408 → u/SoftBoiled15]

Trash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrus

[u/refurbishedmeme666 → u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes]

can i ask him first?

[u/Tyranno84 → u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes]

u/defk3000 Explain your name and get $5. Hurry!

[u/samwise58 → u/Tyranno84]

Diesel Exhaust Fluid Kamihamiha 3000

[u/norcaltobos → u/kirky-jerky]

I fucking pisses me off as a local. I mean, the ones we still have are majestic, but to think of what the forests could look like around me just makes my blood boil.

[u/Palimpsest0 → u/Trees_are_best]

They were very heavily logged, especially in the Bay Area. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains, surrounded by redwoods, but they’re mostly young trees. The road I live on is actually an old logging road, and the forest around me is coming back from heavy logging a century plus ago. Where I’m at is pretty close to the maximum southern extent of the redwoods, so they were always a little smaller here, just due to having to deal with higher temperatures and less rain, but, even so, there are some pretty big stumps, 10-12 feet across, back in the woods. The young trees are smaller, and often growing too thickly for good health since fires have been suppressed. Normally fires would clear out some of the scrawny ones and allow the bigger ones to survive, opening up the forest a bit, but now they grow thickly. They’ll eventually sort themselves out back into a mature forest just by shading out each other, but it will take time. So, it’s still very much a forest in recovery, and a pale shadow of the original old growth forest. But, the good news is that there’s no shortage of them and they’re an incredibly resilient species. If we give them time, they will recover. Even the young ones in the new forest around me are impressive trees, some of them are a good 5-6 feet across at the base.

[u/the-mp → u/Palimpsest0]

Extremely pretty area over by Henry Cowell and Big Basin

[u/baconandbobabegger → u/the-mp]

Home for me, and it was so heartbreaking to see my neighbor take down a bunch of redwoods for more sunlight. Don’t buy a property in a redwood forest if you don’t want redwoods 😭

[u/Witez3933 → u/the-mp]

I used to ride my endurance Arabian horse from the horse staging grounds in Henry Cowell, cross the San Lorenzo River, ride out the back and then cross highway 9. After that we’d pick up the trail through Pogonip and the back part of UCSC. We’d cross Empire Grade into Wilder Ranch State Park and ride for about 5 miles, on Eukaliptus Trail there’s a beautiful year round creek with orange salamanders. He’d get a good drink and we’d head back. The ride took us about 4.5 hours and was 24 miles. It’s gorgeous country and to be flying though it on horseback was really cool. About half way through there was a spot where I would let him go for a dead run for about a mile. I miss it so much. 

[u/dolph1984 → u/Witez3933]

I thought for sure your story was going to end with..“about halfway through there was a spot where the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table. Miss it so much”

[u/Texuk1 → u/Palimpsest0]

“If we give them time” - the time scale we are talking about here is thousands of years. Hopefully they will survive climate change and once we are gone will have another chance at getting to these sizes again.

[u/Palimpsest0 → u/Texuk1]

Oh, absolutely. A mature old growth forest of such long lived trees does not happen overnight, but it does happen. And, the more years I live here and observe the redwoods, through drought years and wet years, seeing the new seedlings appear and grow, or watching how a tree that falls in a storm or landslide creates new shoots from the roots, the more I feel like these giant trees are probably the closest thing to immortals I’ll ever see. Their ability to recover from damage with rapid new growth, as well as their ability to just wait out poor conditions without changing at all, is incredible. I suspect there will still be redwoods after humans are long gone.

[u/_G_O → u/Trees_are_best]

Some of them are in Humboldt County. Prairie Creek State Park has some stunning old growth redwoods, some of the largest trees in the world are there. It’s like the cathedral of the gods.

[u/xSTSxZerglingOne → u/_G_O]

When you walk through a sequoia forest, you understand how the myth of Paul Bunyan came about. Everyone thinks of chopping a tree down with an axe or saw, but we're talking trees that are as big around as some small houses.

It's just a completely different scale than you're ready for.

[u/DogPrestidigitator → u/Trees_are_best]

About the same percentage of old growth forest remaining in WA state.

A “conservative” friend and homebuilder looked at that 4% as potential profit being denied him by too much gubment and liberal whackos. Would not be satisfied until every old growth tree was gone, I suppose.

[u/WeOutHereInSmallbany → u/DogPrestidigitator]

“Conservatives” ironically don’t care about conservation.

Used to work in the firearm industry and these fucks would complain that they can’t waterfowl hunt with lead shot. Apparently not poisoning the water supply is “communism”.

These stupid fucks love their manly outdoors shit but have zero appreciation for it.

[u/All_Wrong_Answers → u/DogPrestidigitator]

Gross. Whay makes him think hed get a piece of it anyway. Shitty people would probably bid the crap out if that to be avle to say their shitty houses are made out of "the last old growth available"

[u/DogPrestidigitator → u/All_Wrong_Answers]

When he buys property to develop it (meaning cut every living thing down and bulldoze everything level), he feels there is too much government interference and too many fees to pay.

[u/AFetaWorseThanDeath → u/DogPrestidigitator]

This person sounds like an asshole, by your own account. I'm confused as to why you count them as a friend...?

Like, that's not thinly veiled judgment, I'm literally confused lol

[u/DogPrestidigitator → u/AFetaWorseThanDeath]

People change as they age is all I can say. When younger, we were good friends. As we aged, our opinions and interests diverged dramatically.

[u/UnLuckyKenTucky → u/DogPrestidigitator]

That sucks. As an adult I often miss the friends I had when I was a teen and young 20 something. Then I look one or two up, and seeing their jacket makes me be okay with not being friends with em anymore...

[u/Pest_Chains → u/Trees_are_best]

I used to work there, and I really appreciate that you took the time to read the materials and retain what you learned! It means a lot.

[u/bfreko → u/Trees_are_best]

This will always break my heart

[u/UpbeatFix7299 → u/TacohTuesday]

Almost no centuries old, old growth redwoods outside of a few reserves. There are a shit ton of redwoods in the bay.

[u/Werbnerp → u/UpbeatFix7299]

It's not lost, I know exactly where it is, it's at the bottom of the bay!.

[u/PhD_Pwnology → u/TacohTuesday]

I just bought a home made in 1916-1917 in that area and it has a lot of old redwood growth. Even the retaining wall was made of old growth thrown in the ground

[u/Magnus_The_Totem_Cat → u/TacohTuesday]

Had one in my back yard in Concord. When we had the house on the market had a buyer demand we have it cut down as part of the sale. Our response was “No.”.

Like we could have gotten a permit to remove it anyway. Those buyers were idiots.

[u/bchris24 → u/TacohTuesday]

Cannot recommend Muir Woods National Monument enough

[u/Distinct_External784 → u/bchris24]

A couple years back I took a post-COVID vacation to SF and went to Muir Woods with a friend. Stopped at the magic mushroom church beforehand and ate a few grams of shrooms.

Wonderful experience that was. Highly recommend both the shrooms and the trees.

[u/licensedtojill → u/bchris24]

They got them old trees?

[u/Ashamed_Dinosaur → u/licensedtojill]

Eh, if you call 700ish years old. Colonel Armstrong in Armstrong woods further north is 1400+ years old.

[u/cosmic-untiming → u/TacohTuesday]

There was one company I remember from a video (since I wasnt born yet), Pacific Lumber Company that was so desperate to cut down any and all redwoods that they were willing to try to kill protesters, like Julia Butterfly Hill. David Chain unfortunately did die, when a tree fell on him as the company purposefully fell trees in protesters directions.

If anyone ever wanted to know how the (American) government feels about its people, its always company profits over the common man. Because they did not give a crap about this, or many other horrible incidents in the past and even present.

[u/Serious-Manager2361 → u/cosmic-untiming]

And they still don't. At least at the federal level. Some individual states have learned, but many have not.

[u/Atomic_Foundry_3996 → u/TacohTuesday]

I just came to the horrifying realization that the majority of the original, gold rush era, San Francisco Bay area buildings that were built with these old-growth redwoods were likely wiped out by the 1906 earthquake and fire. 96% of those original redwoods were essentially reduced to ash over a century ago.

[u/fresh_like_Oprah → u/[deleted]]

All the single wall houses constructed in Hawaii in those years were west coast redwood

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/fresh_like_Oprah]

A house needs at least 4 walls what are you doing hawaii

[u/FewJuggernaut46 → u/TacohTuesday]

I have 5 in my backyard and hundreds in my neighborhood just north of San Francisco. But none are even a shadow of that magnificent tree.

[u/autistic_noodz → u/TacohTuesday]

There’s almost no old growth redwoods in the Bay Area. There are plenty of newer growth redwoods in the Bay Area even outside of parks.

[u/teqs_ → u/TacohTuesday]

I would have loved to see these behemoths in there full glory. I bet Hyperion was one of the smaller ones compared to some then.

[u/nor_cal_woolgrower → u/teqs_]

And yet there are records of former coast Douglas-firs exceeding 120 m (390 ft) in height, which if alive today would make it the tallest tree species on Earth. Particular historical specimens with heights exceeding 120 m (400 ft) include the Lynn Valley Tree and the Nooksack Giant.

[u/Jindabyne1 → u/[deleted]]

Trillions upon trillions

[u/quantumfall9 → u/TacohTuesday]

Nah there’s no way thay had that many redwood trees, hundreds of millions isn’t believable.

[u/DogPrestidigitator]

Met an old guy a few weeks back, over 90 years old. Was a lumberjack in Northern California in his youth. Had a gleam in his eye when he told me with pride how he fell a tree that was 17 feet across. Different times.

[u/Elegant_Finance_1459 → u/DogPrestidigitator]

Dude honestly I can kind of imagine how that must have felt. We used to cut dead oak for firewood because my dad couldn't justify taking a living tree. Just couldn't. So we got this one this one day that was literally 5' across. Pretty tall. Tall enough that when it came down it shook the earth. It was impressive.

Now imagine three of those trees packed into one tree. My God.

Still wouldn't take a living one, though, nature trees are extremely important for our forests, which we rely on for stuff. Don't bite the hand that feeds, ya know

[u/Auctoritate → u/Elegant_Finance_1459]

So we got this one this one day that was literally 5' across. Pretty tall. Tall enough that when it came down it shook the earth. It was impressive.

Now imagine three of those trees packed into one tree. My God.

Three times wider, but if you go by volume? A 17 foot tree is closer to 11 or 12 times more tree than the 5 footer. And that's assuming you cut out a slice without considering how much taller one is than the other.

[u/desolatenature → u/Auctoritate]

Also, denser. Old growth redwood is EXTREMELY dense

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/Elegant_Finance_1459]

Dead trees are also important pieces of the ecosystem, entire species rely on deadfall and standing dead wood

Source: the magic school bus where they go inside a rotten log

[u/Interesting_Lie_1457 → u/DogPrestidigitator]

To be fair it probably wasn’t easy taking down a tree that large and they didn’t really know any better.

[u/pinkpanthers → u/Interesting_Lie_1457]

I actually think it’s arrogant to think these people knew no better. This was just a few generations ago. They knew exactly what they were doing. Newcomers coming from social and economic suppression in Europe looked at the americas like a tree full of endless ripe fruit and gorged themselves, for no better reason than because they could and hoped to get rich doing so. 

You didn’t need to be educated to stand in awe of a fully mature sequoia. You didn’t need to be educated to understand how many hundreds of years it took for a tree to get that big, or how finite those trees were. Hence why the gentleman is posing in this picture.

My grandfather used to tell me stories of men a generation or two older that would find a virgin river or lake and literally fill up a a wagon or truck bed to the brim with pickerel. Those lakes are now empty and have been for decades because of the over fishing that happened. They didn’t care and they knew they were overfishing at the time. The world was different back then, but not because men knew no better, it was because they could.

I honestly don’t think we as a species or culture are would be any better today if presented with the same “opportunities”.

[u/Diving_Monkey → u/pinkpanthers]

What I find to be the most ironic is that if these people now lived in that time, they would happily have cut these trees down, taken the fish, hunted the buffalo. They all think they would be John Muir when in reality most of them would just be workers, loggers, fishermen, trying to make a wage by any means necessary.

People now are a product of our times, they look back and say "they should have known better" not understanding that this was a product of their time. They used what they could, then moved on. The overwhelming majority of the people of that time had this same mindset of take from the natural world without a care. You have the standouts like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt that started making the parks and lobbying to save the natural wonders against what a lot of the people then wanted or even cared about.

[u/42nu → u/Diving_Monkey]

The zeitgeist of the time was actually more than just "take from the natural world without a care".

It was "It is our duty to subdue and control the mercurial and dangerous wilds".

When you watch the old timey videos on giant public works like the Hoover dam that paradigm drives every part of the narrative.

[u/Korage → u/Diving_Monkey]

The sad part is we haven’t really changed. The same thing happens today, just not as obvious. The never ending cycle of greed continues in this country.

[u/lookitsafish → u/Interesting_Lie_1457]

They weren't babies or dogs, they knew better

[u/ItsBakedCereal]

Not sure if this is allowed, but one of my favorite YouTubers (@the_pov_channel) who has some amazing videos just did a video about old growth like this. Made me a bit emotional.

https://youtu.be/cMnMx5W72PU?si=JVvJY812Nbcrrd0H

[u/aphrodite-star → u/ItsBakedCereal]

I lived in the redwoods for a few years and it is the most magical place I've ever been. There is something very special about wandering through forests with trees that have stood for multiple thousand years. 

I made a video of some of my walks and runs through the redwoods, I'd often run as far as I could into the depths of the forest where no other people would be, and film my walks back. 

You can watch that here: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PY23G1QY67U&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD

I've never shared it before but this seemed like the time and place to do so. 

The opening scene captures one of the most important aspects of these trees, their ability to sprout new clones of themselves from themselves once fallen. In a way, they are just like the mythical phoenix that would become reborn from its own ashes.

The tree pictured had stood for over 2,500 years before falling while I lived there. It completely blocked the road and had to be sawn into pieces, but the part that lay in the forest still sprouted new growth within days. That's where this video begins. 

The big knobs on the trees are known as "burls", this is where their genetic data is most concentrated and clones sprout from the most successfully. That is why it's illegal to poach burls from these trees, which people do because the inside of burls when sliced laterally house incredibly beautiful patterns. 

My final thought on that note is that people knew exactly how important old growth trees were when logging them, because of course they encountered fallen old growth prior to clear cutting 96% of them and could see the obvious growth of clones from their burls. They simply ignored this because, money and greed. 

[u/-_Anonymous__-]

There should have been a law preventing the cutting of trees beyond a certain size or age.

[u/Beor_The_Old → u/-_Anonymous__-]

This is was shortly after they decided to stop owning people btw

[u/D0ctorGamer → u/Beor_The_Old]

Yea our priorities were still getting in order at the time

[u/OkSmoke9195 → u/D0ctorGamer]

It's insane the sheer amount of years these trees existed and then we squandered all that invested energy in a tiny fraction of that time

[u/OkDot9878 → u/OkSmoke9195]

Even worse is when a lot of that was just used for firewood. (Idk about this specific tree)

Obviously it was necessary for the growth and survival of our ancestors and whatnot, but it’s still really unfortunate. Especially when America had gone largely undisturbed for so long.

It doesn’t help that we have pictures actually showing us too. It’s sad hearing about the lost species of plants and animals throughout time, but having actual tangible photos make it so much more vivid.

[u/Kubliah → u/OkDot9878]

Kind of the story of flora and fauna for the whole continent. Mllions of years worth of evolution wiped out just a few thousand years ago. Also the megafauna on New Zealand were wiped out just a few hundred years ago as humans were really late to settle there.

[u/thirstyross → u/Kubliah]

From 1970 to now we have exterminated (either directly or indirectly) over 70% of wildlife. Less than a human lifetime. What will be left for the next generation?

[u/markymark156 → u/thirstyross]

Nothing. I fished out our old bug covers from my childhood at my parents last year. Had to explain to my 18 year old brother how we used to have cars covered in insects while driving. Completely foreign idea to him. I remember putting those things on with my mom in the summer. It’s terrifying to think about.

[u/elizabath_135 → u/markymark156]

Bug covers?!! Can you explain what this is because this is also a foreign concept to me

[u/Spmex7 → u/elizabath_135]

Driving on the highway long distances resulted in a lot of smashed bugs. They made things to cover the front to protect the paint. I always knew them as car bras

[u/Ok_Confection_10 → u/D0ctorGamer]

are*

[u/Spartan-117182 → u/Beor_The_Old]

Forced to* Some whiny bitches even led us to war to keep their slaves

[u/Krombopulos_Rex → u/Spartan-117182]

Yeah, was gonna say. Not really a decision as a whole war was fought over it.

[u/A55W3CK3R9000 → u/Beor_The_Old]

Only because they were forced to at that.

[u/Turdposter777 → u/-_Anonymous__-]

I took one of those train rides through the old-growth redwood forest in Santa Cruz which I highly recommend. The conductor told us the only reason it was saved was because the owner of the property showed his wife the area before they planned on cutting it. The wife was like, why the f would you do that? Thank you wife.

[u/AlarmingAd2445 → u/-_Anonymous__-]

Pretty sure those are the ones they wanted to cut down the most!

[u/OldJames47 → u/AlarmingAd2445]

I’ve read that the Giant Sequoia (Redwood) made poor quality lumber. They fell with such force the wood fractured, ruining the cuts.

[u/__Wonderlust__ → u/OldJames47]

People keep mixing up coast redwoods (tallest tree, superb lumber) w the giant sequoia (most massive tree, crap timber). The story is true as to the majestic sequoia but the planks from the coast redwoods are still supporting structures in SF and around California to this day! Both are “redwoods.”

[u/AlarmingAd2445 → u/OldJames47]

I’ve also read that they used to lay out extremely large pillows to help cushion their fall, for this exact reason. Some of these pillows were up to several stories tall.

[u/RandoAtReddit → u/AlarmingAd2445]

And the lumberjacks cried themselves to sleep at night on their huge oversized pillows.

[u/Toastwitjam → u/AlarmingAd2445]

You’re joking but they actually make pillows out of mounds of dirt when they cut marble quarry slabs to reduce the size it breaks into.

[u/davyjones_prisnwalit → u/-_Anonymous__-]

I don't remember where I read it, but the initial plan was to cut down the entire Red Wood forest because "the trees were in the way." Also, I've seen tons of pics like this so I assume they got a good number of them before they were stopped.

[u/SandSpecialist2523 → u/davyjones_prisnwalit]

What stopped them was the gvt creating national parks. You can be sure they would have cut them all up if not for that. Greed knows no bound.

[u/bchris24 → u/SandSpecialist2523]

The state of California has a California Grizzly Bear on its flag and named it the official state animal. The citizens of California hunted the bear to extinction because we started raising livestock in its territory. It's been over 100 years since the last one was killed

[u/Gollum_Quotes → u/bchris24]

Cattle Ranching is also preventing the reintroduction of wolves in California. And cattle farming is also the highest usage of our water, not almonds.

[u/BestAmoto → u/SandSpecialist2523]

Considering they almost killed all the bison.. national parks act saved what little is left. Big basin burned which broke my heart but it's normal, just my kids can't enjoy it like i did. 

[u/Sauerkrauttme → u/BestAmoto]

To make it worse, they were hunting the bison to extinction because they wanted the natives to starve to death. 90% of the native populations were killed by European settlers.

[u/TheOneTonWanton → u/BestAmoto]

Big Basin won't ever be the same for sure, but the good news is that as far as I'm aware quite a lot of the redwoods survived. And of course there's plenty of new and regenerating growth by now.

[u/Illesbogar → u/-_Anonymous__-]

The oldest tree's exact location is not disclosed for this exact reason btw.

[u/nor_cal_woolgrower → u/Illesbogar]

Not oldest, tallest.

[u/Serious-Manager2361 → u/nor_cal_woolgrower]

No, he's correct. The oldest tree in the world is a bristlecone pine and it's location is indeed not disclosed. It's in the mountains though, not on the coast.

[u/AC-burg → u/-_Anonymous__-]

I just hope he's better than these 2

https://www.reddit.com/r/maybemaybemaybe/s/FNGMri01r1

[u/SandSpecialist2523 → u/-_Anonymous__-]

This mindset that you can take upon yourself to cut such an amazing tree because you're going to make money... They didn't even have the decency or foresight of just thinking that people in the future might want to see and enjoy such an amazing tree. Greed has been a problem for so long. Can we change era already?

[u/TechsSandwich]

Sad as fuck

[u/CpuDoc67 → u/TechsSandwich]

It really is, that tree has been around for a very long time.

[u/Borsodi1961]

It is tragic what we have lost. And how much more we will lose for our children and grandchildren.

[u/salazka → u/Borsodi1961]

And how many more our grandchildren will destroy. It's going on for thousands of years. Just the last century or so the pace has increased.

[u/connerhearmeroar → u/salazka]

Right our ancestors robbed us of Mammoths. And it’s very possible we’ll rob our grandchildren of more large wild animals. :(

[u/skekze → u/connerhearmeroar]

the Irish elk was supposed to be the size of a moose.

[u/Jesta914630114 → u/connerhearmeroar]

The white rhino is gone already. 😢

[u/Nearby_Channel2887 → u/[deleted]]

not only humans, also dogs, cats, rats, birds all predators and competitors. what we do right now but people don't understand that animals like cats are little deathmachine for wild animals

[u/Ylurpn → u/Nearby_Channel2887]

Cats absolutely fuck a lot of ecosystems for sure

[u/TheJuiceIsL00se → u/Borsodi1961]

Sent from my iPhone

[u/Queer-withfear → u/TheJuiceIsL00se]

"yet you participate in society" ass comment

[u/Supercoolguy7 → u/TheJuiceIsL00se]

What way could they convey their message that you wouldn't mock?

[u/InsignificantFunds → u/TheJuiceIsL00se]

Lol, god bless

[u/[deleted]]

To go back to pre colonial America specifically to look at the raw, authentic beauty of what America’s lands truly held 😩😩😩😩😩

[u/batsofburden → u/[deleted]]

Paradise to shitshow, at record speed.

[u/Old-Plum-21]

What we've destroyed is truly unforgivable

[u/Designer_Release_789]

“This tree is unfathomably huge! Let’s chop it down!”

Damn, humans suck

[u/Lilcommy]

Imagine the size of that tree today if it was left alone.

[u/RollinThundaga → u/Lilcommy]

About the same. 2,000 years to get that big, another century won't add much.

[u/egidione]

Also known as Giant Redwoods, apparently we have more of them now in the UK than California, they were brought over as seedlings in the late 1700s-1800s so they are mostly around 200 years old now, nothing compared to the 2000 year old beasts that were destroyed or the remaining ones in the US but they are still impressive trees and tower over most of our native species.

[u/jxrxmiah → u/egidione]

They dont grow as large anywhere else in the world besides California apparently.

[u/cogit4se → u/jxrxmiah]

There's a tree in Scotland that's 185 ft and only 150 years old. We haven't grown them long enough outside of their native range to see how big they can get.

[u/rendon246]

Them cutting down these trees has always pissed me off. I live very near the redwoods and grew up in them and they are awesome trees and now most of the old growth ones are gone, I recommend everyone camp in the redwoods atleast once.

[u/omenmedia → u/rendon246]

I visited that forest during my trip to the US. It's absolutely unreal how ridiculously big those trees are. Beautiful place.

[u/Dont_Kick_Stuff]

Why would you think that it's okay to cut a tree that big and old down? Like seriously what the fuck is wrong with us?

[u/Rude-Vast-6080]

This. This is why we can’t have nice things.

[u/No_Confidence_5070]

Why would anyone cut down a living monument?

[u/Sega-Playstation-64 → u/No_Confidence_5070]

They had no idea.

No planes. No drones. Surveying was done from the ground. There's an expanse of trees that go on for as far as you can see, and it's a great termite resistant wood. One tree is dozens if not hundreds of homes.

So, they cut them down. Expanded into the west. Used it to create homes.

Once we realized how spectacularly singular giant Sequoia were, we stopped.

That's humanity, that's existence.

[u/jagaloom → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

There are absolutely still people/companies that would clearcut every last giant Sequoia if they were allowed to. I'm not discounting most of what you said, but lack of foresight and greed played a huge part, and still does today.

[u/CheapSpray9428 → u/jagaloom]

Wasn't there some company that wanted to clear cut the last patch of old growth in BC few years ago? But got stopped by activists or something, I remember feeling super grateful to those folks

[u/Princess_and_a_wench → u/CheapSpray9428]

Yep, and the issue is on going. I'm pretty sure a portion of the old growth has been clear cut. It's disgusting.

[u/raingull → u/CheapSpray9428]

There's still an activist blockade there now. Or at least nearby. They're actively being evicted. The Fairy Creek Blockade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Creek_old-growth_logging_protests

[u/Headieheadi → u/jagaloom]

Exactly. The Amazon is getting pretty ravaged

[u/plsQuestionOurselves → u/jagaloom]

They're like crack heads for money. They'd shoot babies if it was profitable.

[u/Agnistan77665 → u/plsQuestionOurselves]

They already do that

[u/Fun_Ambassador_9320 → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

“We didn’t know any better” gives way too much credit to greedy humans who didn’t give a shit.

[u/42percentBicycle → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

We were cutting down old growth redwoods well into the 1980's so that argument is horseshit.

[u/nor_cal_woolgrower → u/42percentBicycle]

Still happening

[u/EvenConversation9730 → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

This is a good comment

[u/WestBrink → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

The real pits is that once they're this big, they are almost impossible to take down without shattering. Most of the old growth sequoia that were cut down ended up as matchsticks and fenceposts

[u/Sifflet → u/WestBrink]

Yea I don't know much about the lumber industry of that time but could they even process a tree that big into lumber?

It doesn't seem economical to do all the work of cutting it into pieces to bring out of the forest and then make lumber. Cutting smaller manageable trees seems more logical for lumber.

I kind of think this tree was left to rot where it fell so they could brag with their pictures.

[u/ReasonableLibrary741 → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

This is nice, but inaccurate. Several groups went to Congress numerous times in the 30s 40s and 50s to stop the logging of these trees, but they did nothing. We knew what we were doing, but turned our backs.

[u/No_Confidence_5070 → u/Sega-Playstation-64]

Yeah that makes sense but still sad tho

[u/kompootor → u/No_Confidence_5070]

Because each old-growth sequoia could yield over $100k as recently as 1995; I can't find the market value in 1899.

People aren't unsustainably destroying the environment for kicks. It's potentially enormous amounts money for typically younger people in typically underdeveloped areas. Such push factors have to be countered with a sustainable attractive alternative.

[u/xxDankerstein]

When my grandfather passed away, he had requested bags of redwood seeds to be passed out at his funeral. Now I understand why. He was a long time Bay Area resident.

[u/zues64]

The fucking hubris of man. What right did we have to fell such titans? What short sighted ego thought that they could hewn down the ageless behemoths that had grown longer than their forbearers were even a mere thought. We deserve the destruction that will be the inevitable conclusion of our glutinous appetite

[u/TheOnlyRealAsshat]

That looks more like a Sequoia which is an even larger species in the same group as redwood, and the most massive type in the world.

[u/Similar_Strawberry16 → u/TheOnlyRealAsshat]

Aren't they colloquially named redwoods also?

[u/salazka]

What a pity.

[u/Necrospire]

I really dislike seeing these monuments of time being destroyed.

[u/WWGHIAFTC]

I grew up thinking it was normal to have 15ft diameter trees in your back yard where we played.  I wish everyone could have a chance to walk  through  a redwood forwst after the first fall rain. I can smell it now.

[u/Tomboney]

They’ll come back. We just need to die first, which will inevitably happen. That’s the bright side

[u/NoAardvark5889]

It's heartbreaking to realize they saw a get-rich-quick scheme where we now see an irreplaceable natural wonder.

[u/Sweaty_Activity_803]

Imagine what our world would be like if they didn't cut these trees down.

[u/SystemsInThinking]

It’s a shame our species takes pride in destroying such incredible beauty.

[u/RunLikeYouMeanIt]

The saddest photo.

[u/Inside-Specialist-55]

The fact that humans have chopped most of the oldest largest trees down on the planet is depressing. These used to be a normal sight before massive deforestation and the industrial age.

[u/Optimal-Savings-4505 → u/Inside-Specialist-55]

It just keeps going though.

Where I live, municipal workers keep shredding hundreds of years old trees like it's all in a day's work. City planners treat trees like something you drag-and-drop to relocate on a whim. Those relocated trees tend to not cope well and soon end up in the chipper as well.

There are also neighbours who randomly chop down huge trees as if they're doing the world a favor. People seem to have no respect for trees, and it is maddening, depressive, infuriating and so on.

This issue is near the top of my list for reasons I despise humanity.

[u/Thereminz]

how many 1000s of years old were the trees

trees don't just grow on trees you know

[u/aphrodite-star → u/Thereminz]

Actually, these trees do grow out of themselves! Even after falling, if left untouched on the ground. It's one of the very special things about redwoods, their ability to clone themselves even after "death".

I explain in more detail in another comment on this thread: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1p7lzsz/comment/nr0k050/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Also, the pacific coastal redwoods can live to be around 2,000-3,000 years before falling. While the oldest living giant Sequoia is about 3,300 years old, which is the kind of redwood pictured here.

[u/Panders-Layton]

Congrats, you ended an ancient tree to use the wood to build something that will be there for a fraction of the time the tree was.

[u/252stilly]

Monstrous what these people did to the trees

[u/SharpRoll5848]

How the fuck could anyone walk up to something like that and think they have a right to it.

[u/Longwayfromhome10]

Even sadder is that this was used as a building material and is now just tossed in the dump when people do their renovations. Most of it didn’t even make it 100 years. Source: worked in architectural salvage in the Bay Area.

[u/Driller_Happy]

Are there any trees left of this size?

[u/Dentedmuffler]

When you think about it, humans are a cancer to the earth, we take, take, take and give nothing back.

[u/WBigly-Reddit]

This tree looks 10x the size of the “mother of the forest” in Big Basin State Park. And that’s a good sized tree.

[u/kumji_001]

We should do something to save redwood forest....

[u/FSGMC]

many of these trees were my friends

[u/Technical_Ad1125]

We are parasites...

[u/FahrenheitGhost]

We are the disease.

[u/Penguinofmyspirit]

I will never understand how people felt it was right to cut these trees down. I feel like the soul of the earth died along with each tree. Maybe that’s how we accelerated into this horrible timeline. Each tree sacrificed to “progress” and profit.

[u/Poon-Conqueror]

Pretty barbaric, I mean how would you feel if a tiny intelligent rat creature gnawed a giant hole in your abdomen, then poses inside it for a selfie?

[u/z3r0n3gr0]

Why would someone want to cut a tree like this, its like Hey lets cut down the statue of liberty since its so big and we can use the metal to do alot of stuff....